CONVERSATION PARTNER 7 – Shayan, Meeting 2
At times I feel quite intimidated by the fact that I am supposed to “mentor” this person who is not only older and far more experienced than me in many ways, but who presents with only the most occasional word-form problem or slightly mispronounced word.
I told him my concern, and asked him given his proficiency, in which way I could be of best service. He said that what he really wanted to work on was continuing to build his comfort in conversation, and also to begin learning colloquialisms and vernacular.
Strategy here will be very important. Normally I would like to invite Shayan to hang out with my friends, where I know for certain that he will be exposed to colloquialisms of all colors. I know that my friends would enjoy his conversation, and he theirs; however, since most of them are gone for the summer, I’m working on developing new strategies to integrate him into different groups of people, situations where he will get some practice in networking and hanging around in informal environments. I have also pulled for him a book from the local library about common American expressions.
No comments:
Post a Comment